A treasure chest for body and soul

Altenau Moor

This particular aroma is familiar to walkers in the unique cultural landscape around Saulgrub. This region is home to the Altenauer Moor with its wonderful wild flowers and peaty pools – a natural landscape dating back millennia and formerly used to harvest peat.

Today, locals manage the fragile biotope in order to preserve the habitat of its many rare plants and animals, such as the mountain pine or the high moor ground beetle. In addition, the Altenauer Moor is a popular recreation area. Locals and visitors walk across the moor on wooden boardwalks and enjoy these distinctive natural surroundings.

Moor soap: a piece of Bavarian cultural landscape

This is how Moor soap came into being

Armed with sunglasses, apron and gloves, Veronika Wurm first adds vegetable fats and oils to her vat where they gently melt. She then adds lye to this oil and fat mixture, which spits and steams ferociously. Within a short space of time the mixture thickens as it is stirred, resulting in the so-called “soap glue”.

After this has simmered for quite a while, the soapmaker mixes in the moor ingredients and the essential oils. She grinds the ingredients for the moor blocks particularly finely, to create a peeling effect when they are used for washing. Finally she pours the finished soap mixture into a wooden mold. The soap now needs three to four weeks to ripen, until the basic PH-value has reached seven or eight. Then the soap is suitable for the skin and can be sold. Guests who are interested in the manufacturing process can watch Veronika Wurm at work in her glazed workshop.

Soap workshop in Saulgrub: a meeting point for visitors and locals